Seismic tomography can be combined with constraints from geoid, topography and other surface observations to gain information about mantle structure and dynamics. This approach has been taken with much success for the Earth mantle, and here it is, for the first time, applied to the Moon. Lunar tomography has much lower resolution as for the Earth and is mostly restricted to the near side, nevertheless we can assess under what assumptions the fit between predicted geoid (based on a tomography model) and observed geoid is best. Among the models tested, we find the most similar pattern (correlation about 0.5) if we only consider tomography below 225 km depth, if density anomalies cause little or no dynamic topography and if we compare to the geoid with the flattening (l=2,m=0l=2,m=0) term removed. This could mean that (a) like for the Earth, seismic anomalies shallower than 225 km are caused by a combination of thermal and compositional effects and therefore cannot be simply converted to density anomalies; (b) the lithosphere is sufficiently thick to prevent dynamic topography more than a small fraction of total topography; and (c) flattening is a “fossil” bulge unrelated to present-day mantle anomalies. However, we have to be cautious with interpreting our results, because for models with a comparatively higher correlation and a conversion from seismic velocity to density anomalies similar to the Earth’s upper mantle, the amplitude of the predicted geoid is much lower than observed. This could either mean that the tomography model is strongly damped, or that the geoid is mostly due to shallow causes such as crustal thickness variations, with only a small part coming from the deeper mantle.

The magmatic activity (0–16 Ma) in Iceland is linked to a deep mantle plume that has been active for the past 62 My. Icelandic and northeast Atlantic basalts contain variable proportions of two enriched components, interpreted as recycled oceanic crust supplied by the plume, and subcontinental lithospheric mantle derived from the nearby continental margins. A restricted area in southeast Iceland—and especially the Öræfajökull volcano—is characterized by a unique enriched-mantle component (EM2-like) with elevated 87Sr/86Sr and 207Pb/204Pb. Here, we demonstrate through modeling of Sr–Nd–Pb abundances and isotope ratios that the primitive Öræfajökull melts could have assimilated 2–6% of underlying continental crust before differentiating to more evolved melts. From inversion of gravity anomaly data (crustal thickness), analysis of regional magnetic data, and plate reconstructions, we propose that continental crust beneath southeast Iceland is part of ∼350-km-long and 70-km-wide extension of the Jan Mayen Microcontinent (JMM). The extended JMM was marginal to East Greenland but detached in the Early Eocene (between 52 and 47 Mya); by the Oligocene (27 Mya), all parts of the JMM permanently became part of the Eurasian plate following a westward ridge jump in the direction of the Iceland plume.